Sumatran Elephant: A Tale of Sorrow deep in the Jungle

Due to excessive illegal logging and associated habitat loss, the Sumatran Elephants are facing a serious threat of extinction that the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has listed the species under the “critically endangered” tag.

Environmental organizations such as the World Wild Fund (WWF) has voiced for immediate moratorium on the destruction of the animal’s habitat. Environmentalists estimated that if no actions are taken in favor of its conservation, the species would extinct in 30 years.

The number of Sumatran elephants has declined from 5000 to a figure between 2400 and 2800 in a span of 27 years. The reason for such a turn down in population is excessive destruction of its natural habitat for timber, palm oil and paper and pulp plantation.

Sumatra has been a safe haven for a complete species of Asian elephant, outside India and Sri Lanka. According to the conservation group in WWF, as a result of habitat loss the elephants are forced to go into cultivated land, where they would be confronted by humans. This causes economic loss to humans and loss of life to the poor species.

Normally Sumatran elephant lives to an average of 70 years. Because of human intervention, often they couldn’t complete their life time.

They are either shot or poisoned with cyanide containing fruit and sometimes they are killed by greedy poachers for ivory. We can save them by protecting the habitat, by ending poaching and by changing the existing laws.